Can Australia End the Triangular Title Drought!

Posted by admin on March 7th, 2012

Australia has won the triangular series 18 times out of the 30 tournaments played so far. But, inability to win the last two triangular series has made it a 6 years gap for them to get the hands on trophy. In the last two series England and India defeated the hosts, can Australia win their 19th title now against the superior Lankan side!!

Australian bowlers and batsmen have ruled the trinagular series in the past. As a team they have won majority of the matches played. Greg Chappel’s 686 runs is still the tournament record, while McGrath’s 27 wickets also appears unachievable for the bowlers.

The Australian team record against all teams, except West Indies shows major success. They have not reached the finals only twice. And, even in finals they have let the tournament reach to decider final only on 4 occasions. Australia has played all of them and lost only to West Indies in 1984-85. They have defeated South Africa twice and Kiwis once when they played the third final.

But, in the current series, Sri Lankan bowlers and batsmen have surged ahead. The pace battery must come up with exceptional performance supported by the Australian top order batting to stop Lankan winning their first title in Australian triangular series.

Clarke will be missed as captain and batsmen in the final. Watson faces the biggest test as captain on his comeback in the team. Besides the bowling efforts of youngsters, Australia needs Watson to fire and Hussey brothers to get into runs again to avoid losing the finals for the third consecutive time. A very tough call against the motivated Sri Lankan team which has already defeated them in 4 matches out of the six played during the series.